Posted on 05/12/2009 9:13:28 AM PDT by Califreak
(RTTNews) - A bill to crack down on what consumer advocates call unfair and deceptive practices in the credit card industry is poised to pass the Senate as early as this week.
Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, said although consumers have an obligation to pay their bills, they also have rights that need protecting.
"When credit card companies engage in deceptive practices that are designed specifically to trip up the consumer … then [consumers] feel deceived and want change, and that's what we're attempting to do here," Dodd said at a press conference Tuesday.
Dodd, who is an author of the bill, which also has support from the ranking member on the Banking Committee, Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said it is not about what members of Congress or even President Barack Obama want.
(Excerpt) Read more at rttnews.com ...
Good, This will help.
The Credit Card companies tactics are one of several triggers for the current economic crisis.
I fully expect this will end up hurting consumers.
Chris Dodd’s Credit Card Bill Won’t Help Consumers
http://seekingalpha.com/article/134817-chris-dodd-s-credit-card-bill-won-t-help-consumers
“Chris Dodd says he’s doing consumers a favor by pushing his nutty Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights, which passed the House Thursday. He’s not. If Dodd’s bill becomes law, some consumers will have a harder time getting credit cards on any terms, while others will face steeper interest rates and fees. That’s a high price we’ll all have to pay just so the Senate’s most vulnerable Democrat can hang on to his seat.”
Calling this or any other initiative a “Bill of Rights” diminishes the constitutional Bill of Rights. Rights are given by God. Anything given by government can be taken by government and is therefore a privilege, not a right.
I couldn’t agree more.
Tom Brown is wrong. I remember credit cards 20 years ago. And I think there is no comparison. You can get what sounds like a great deal now, but its the way it can change on you, and the willingness of the credit card company to change the deal midstream that makes it a much worse deal
If this bill prevents people from getting low rates, then those low rates were only being offered with the expectation of changing the deal later.
See that! I instictively expect government to screw things up. Its a natural state.
You want to call it “Credit Card Bill of Privileges”?
How about Credit Card Company Bill of Restrictions?
I’m still for it.
Will Dodd get his buddy and ex-colleague Joe Biden to write the specific guidelines for the bill as he did the latest bankruptcy bill?
Maybe he is wrong.
I despise Dodd though, and there has to be something in this that would benefit potential donors more than the voters he’s trying to trick into re-electing him.
I just don’t trust him at all.
>Tucked deep inside Chris Dodd’s “credit card reform bill” is this little nugget.....an increase of up to $500 billion in borrowing authority for the FDIC.
The bill would provide a permanent increase in the FDIC’s authority to borrow from $30 billion to $100 billion and would provide a temporary increase of up to $500 billion under certain conditions”
Think another $500 billion bank bailout would go over too well right now? So, guess what , we’ll just make it the “fine print” in the “credit card reform’ bill and make anyone who votes “No” out to be “anti-consumer”<
http://www.thenextright.com/category/blog-tags/chris-dodd
Hmmm
“I fully expect this will end up hurting consumers.”
What it will do is limit the amount of credit banks give out and also likely require higher credit scores to qualify. That, I don’t necessarily see as a bad thing.
I can’t really tell what this bill does in the first place from this article. It’s rather vague. I think most people expect super low interest rates on credit cards to go up after a time period unless you’re braindead and have been living under a rock.
That said, I’ve recently had the interest rates jerked from 6.99% to 19.99% on one of my cards despite never making a late payment on a 13-year old account. It doesn’t affect me, as I pay my balance in full every month and couldn’t care less about the present interest rates. That said, a move like that could put someone who hadn’t planned their financial future a bit better in a world of hurt.
Dodd may be playing both sides of the fence.
Dodd may recognize something is going to be done to reign in the Credit Card company practices, and this may be a token offering that has loopholes, or is a weaker version than what others are proposing.
I know what the article said the bill was supposed to do. But we’ve seen enough bills like the Offshore drilling act, that do exactly the opposite of what they promoted as doing.
>Dodd may be playing both sides of the fence.<
I’m sure he is.
I can do everything I need to do with a visa debit card. I don’t need no stinking credit card.
In 10 years I’m going to be 100% debt free getting my car paid off 3 years early and my house paid off 20 years early, and having 1 year’s worth of income in savings.
All without changing my current standard of living.
More like it!
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